Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, hinted Monday that the league may be willing to make the next offer in a labor battle with players that has caused the first two weeks of the season to be canceled.

Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted:
Monday, October 15, 2012, 12:52 PM

Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, hinted Monday that the league may be willing to make the next offer in a labor battle with players that has caused the first two weeks of the season to be canceled.

The Big Four _ NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Daly, and players’ union executives Don and Steve Fehr _ are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Toronto.

In the NHL’s latest proposal, made about a month ago, the players would receive 49 percent of the hockey-related revenue in the first year of a proposed six-year collective-bargaining agreement. The players would receive 48 percent in the second year and 47 percent in the last four years.

The NHLPA has not countered the owners’ last proposal. The league has repeatedly said it wants the players’ union to make the next move.

If the players’ union doesn’t make a counter-offer, will the NHL continue to sit back and wait, or would it make another proposal to spur some action?

"We obviously feel there is an urgency to get to an agreement and to save our season,” Daly said in an e-mail to The Inquirer. “So while not ideal, we will have to keep all options open on how to best proceed.”

That sounds as if the NHL is growing tired of waiting around for the NHLPA.

Having missed their first pay checks on Monday, NHL players may have a bit more urgency as their union heads back to the bargaining table Tuesday.

Then again, the players are scheduled to receive escrow checks this month that will pay them 8.5 percent of their 2011-12 salaries. For the average salary of $2.5 million, that translates to a little over $200,000.

The first two weeks of the regular season, which was scheduled to start last Thursday, have been canceled, and unless something dramatic happens in the next few days, more games are expected to be wiped out by the end of this week.

If hockey is not played in 2012-13, it will be the second time in nine years that the entire season was canceled. If that happens, the NHL will go from being a minor sport to being a laughingstock that doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the NFL, MLB and NBA.

If Bettman and Don Fehr can live with that as their legacy, well, so be it.

PR spin. The NHL commissioned a focus group, led by top GOP strategist Frank Luntz, to aid its lockout public-relations campaign, it was reported by Deadspin.

Ah, this lockout is getting more devious by the minute.

Briere, Giroux, excel. Flyers teammates Danny Briere and Claude Giroux, who used to be housemates in Haddonfield, are off to impressive starts for Germany’s Eisbaren Berlin. They have combined for 13 points in two games, with Briere collecting three goals and four assists, and Giroux adding a goal and five assists.

Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov is 1-2 for CSKA Moscow, compiling a 3.01 goals-against average and .897 save percentage in the KHL.

Phantoms update. The Adirondack Phantoms, who have nine players on their roster who spent time with the Flyers last season, are off to a 1-1 start and don’t play again until Friday in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Brayden Schenn leads the Phantoms with two goals; he has played mostly on a line with Sean Couturier (two points) and Matt Ford. In the third period of Sunday’s 4-0 loss in Springfield, Zac Rinaldo replaced Ford on that unit.

Schenn had both of his goals in the Phantoms’ season-opening, 6-3 win over visiting Portland before a sellout crowd of 4,801 on Saturday.

Perhaps the biggest surprise thus far: Rinaldo has no penalty minutes in two games. He was second in the NHL with 232 minutes last season.

Adirondack’s Harry Zolnierczyk, who played in 37 games with the Flyers last season, took a stick to the face in the second period Sunday and left the game. He did not return, but a Phantoms official said the injury was not serious.

Lavy in Trenton. Coach Peter Laviolette will be among the Flyers' brass who will help coach the ECHL Titans during their practice Tuesday morning at 10. It is closed to the public.